Friday, December 01, 2017

Mgr Loftus: pro-lifers are 'terrorists'

Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas

I've waited to see if there if would be any reaction in the Letters page to Mgr Basil Loftus' latest outrage: an attack on Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, in which he described the Archbishop, and any anyone like him who was actively pro-life, as a terrorist. (Catholic Times, 24th November 2017.)

His column is, as usual, both bizarre and incoherent. Remember, as you read it, that the Catholic Times is sold in the backs of Catholic churches every weekend: this is a newspaper, in other words, with ecclesiastical approval. I transcribe the key section for the record, since the paper has no online presence, even for subscribers.

No-one is more supportive [than Pope Francis] of the rights and paramountcy of all marginalised people, including the unborn - but he is totally opposed to the purportednly pro-life antics of men such as Archbishop Naumann, the recently elected head of the American bishops' 'pro-life committee'.

Where Naumann would erect marquees in papal colours in front of every abortion clinic, and staff them with a 24-hour guard of what Francis calls "prune-faced" people reciting the rosary round the clock, Francis for his part would have smiling and empathetic women there, who khow what it feels like to lose a baby, ready to offer support to the mothers who come out of those clinics, to accompany them in the awful journey of their post-abortion realisation, and to help them to discern what this means. Francis' ideas are clearly articulated by Blase Cupich, the Archbishop of Chicago, who recently lost the contest for chairmanship of that episcopal committee. He told his peers, and everyone else, that while strenuously defending the rights of the unborn child: "We should be no less appalled by the indifference towards the thousands of people who die daily for lack of decent medical care; who are denied rights by a broken immigration system and by racism; who suffer in hunger, joblessness and want; who pay the price of violence in gun-saturated neighbourhoods; or who are exectuted by the state in the name of justice." The US bishops preferred the argument advanced by Naumann, ...Single-issue fanatics, whether they are exercised about sex and marriage, about maniples and Communion-on-the-tongue, about celibacy of the clergy, about contraception, or about the right to carry loaded firearms in America while attending Mass, are at heart essentially zealots. Sadly, too, it seems that those who insist on wearing birettas are often selfsame individuals who want to carry Berettas. All these fanatical partisans are by definition biased and prejudiced against any attempt to reason with them in a way that would seek to integrate their sometimes, but not always, rightful concerns within a wider context. Their extremist and sometimes violent propensities make them, in all but name, terrorists.And sometimes worse. It is said, after all, that one can sometimes reason with a terrorist, but never with a liturgist! The priest who sweeps a child's teddy-bear off the tiny white coffin because it is forbidden by liturgical law, or who excludes females from the role of altar-servers, or refuses to wash their feet on Maundy Thursday, or who turns away from Communion a politician who voted not to criminalise abortion, or a bishop who refuses to back Pope Francis' plea for discernment in the matter of Communion for the divorced and remarried, and for those who live in non-conventional domestic situations, all of them are crypto-terrorists. They are numbered among those whom Paul condemns as ignoring the God's ways of righteousness in favour of their own ill-informed zeal (Romans, 10:3). ...

I hardly think it necessary to point out the contradictions and scandalous assertions in this article. But isn't it funny that he wants to bundle together so many positions he dislikes, in order to discredit them all, and then label people holding them as 'single issue zealots'?

The accusation of terrorism, though not larded with the casual racism which characterised his attack on Cardinal Ranjith ('the Sri Lankan cappa magna fetishist and Tridentine-rite devotee'), and not as theologically fundamental as his denial of the Bodily Resurrection of Our Lord or His Real Presence in the Blessed Sacrament, is in itself the most serious insult of a named prelate that I have read in his columns, and also perhaps the most insane. It seems Loftus, who was a canon lawyer, has forgotten the right of Archbishops, like lesser folk, to their good name (Canon 220).

I detect in this extract the instinctive anti-abortion sentiments common in Catholic liberals of his generation: the hand-wringing refusal to do anything to oppose what they think of as this dreadful, dreadful thing. It makes his attack on Archbishop Naumann all the more morally troubling.

32 comments:

This is outrageous and the man needs to be reined in. There's no excuse. And, along with The Bitter Pill, this rag should not be allowed in our churches. Calling all Bishops and Priests: man up for (literally) Christ's sake.

This apostates cino msg. clergy like the Gov. Of Cal and those at the Vatican who honoring Brown who is promoting Euthanasia and forcing little sisters of the poor to.pay for abortions drugs need to to be defrocked and ousted from the rc faith before a SCHISM envelop the dying cino scarcely Roman or Catholic Church in the Vatican and the west.

Why is the man still a priest? Why is he allowed to continue? Why is he being allowed to lead many to hell? Please Lord Jesus, let the Holy Spirit decend on all religious, like He did in the upper room. Let them go forth as the Apostles did. And all the rebellious, evil, and misinformed, who lead souls to hell be removed. Please forgive them, bring them to repentance, and save their souls.

As someone who actually lives in the archbishop's diocese, the Msgr in questions column is ridiculous. Archbishop Naumann is indeed very pro life, but he also promotes the same policies of welcoming immigrants, concern for the poor, and marginalized, as does the current Pope and bishops around the world. To pretend as if the archbishop is some type of flaming partisan "right winger" is absurd. He stands up for all the Catholic teachings, both non negotiable as well as those policies pushed by the Vatican that fall under the heading of prudential judgments. Trust me, I am an actual Right winger and Archbishop Naumann is not, he is only a Catholic bishop who is faithful to the teachings of his Church.

Basil Loftus is an anti-Christian scroundel and should be defrocked. In any case, from now on no one should go to his masses, or attend any of his official ceremonies. A total boycott by the laity will teach him a lesson.

For much of his career he was incardinated in Leeds diocese. In his retirement he lives in the Diocese of Aberdeen in Scotland - I don't know if that would imply a change to his incardination, perhaps not. By all accounts he is active in doing supply work in Scotland, where of course there is a shortage of priests.

I've known many priests of this type. They can go on and on for days about how much abortion horrifies them, and how they are all for pregnancy aid centers, and praying the Rosary. But there is ONE THING pro-lifers do that ENRAGES these priests: Not voting for pro-abortion politicians.

The mass slaughter of prenatal children is the most horrific and vile perversion ever conjured into existence by our species.

All five million unborn babies alive in America today can be killed tomorrow, legally and unstoppably, on the whim of their mothers.Who can comprehend the depths of intolerable evil of this vicious slaughter in America today? The government approves it and funds it. One million mothers pay blood money to choose it every year. Medical professionals execute it. The mothers commit murder and the babies are murdered with little resistance from Americans.

The abominal presence of non-Catholics in positions of power in the Church reach all the way to the present pope, who has just formally, through the official Vatican publication of the deeds of the Apostolic See, given his approval to the divorced-remarried's reception of Holy Communion. Let us stop pretending, dishonestly, that the problem is with heretics like Monsignor Loftus or individual bishops; the problem is much more serious and higher. In the meantime, the perversion of the virtue of obedience has effectively neutered orthodox Catholics, with some exceptions. Satan has played his cards very well this time.

My dearly beloved daughter, the time has come for My Eternal Father to wipe clean from the face of the earth, the blemish, which casts darkness over the souls of man. He will punish the wicked and take into His Holy Arms those who uphold the True Word of God. His angels will surge forth, in a great tempest, and with mighty scythes will cut out from the roots the disease, which ravages the souls of men, so that the world can become clean again.

Be fearful of the Wrath of God for when He is propelled into such a rage, men will tremble with fear. Those who believe that God does not punish the wicked do not know Him. Their voices, loud and proud, which fill the earth with falsities, and those who deem themselves worthy of great favour, in My Father’s Eyes, but who curse the meek amongst My people, will be plucked from the soil and face the greatest chastisement poured over humanity since the great flood.

The angels of God will descend, and with a scythe in their right hands, divide the chaff from the wheat. Those who curse God will be silenced; those who defile the Son of Man will be silenced; those who defile His Body will wander in confusion, lost and bewildered, before they are plunged into the wilderness.

The Love of God has not been reciprocated and His Mercy has been already declined. Ungrateful souls, whose eyes are set firmly on their own pleasures – and their determination to carry out acts in direct confrontation to the Will of the Lord – will feel the pain of God’s punishment. Like a sheet of lightning, out will pour, like a great tempest, a great upheaval of the earth, which will be felt in every part of the world.

Those who know the Truth will have no fear, for they will be willing witnesses to the promises laid down in Holy Scripture, as to the Great Tribulation to come. Those who have cut God out from their lives – like as if they cut off a limb from their own bodies – will not know of the consequences of cursing God, until it is too late.

You, who have betrayed Me, will suffer the most. You, who have hurled stones at others, in the mistaken belief that you represent Me, will have no one to turn to. For everywhere you try to hide, you will be found naked with nothing to hide your shame. I tell you this, for the patience of My Father is exhausted and onto the battlefield will emerge two armies – those who are for Me and those who are against Me.

Pray for God’s Mercy. And to those who scourge My Body know this. You may believe that I can be wiped away from My House but, that would be a grave error on your part.

Away from Me, for you do not belong to Me. Your wickedness will be your downfall and through your allegiance to the evil one, you have cut yourselves away from My Glorious Kingdom.

"Francis for his part would have smiling and empathetic women there, who khow what it feels like to lose a baby, ready to offer support to the mothers who come out of those clinics,"So we're to be ready AFTER this person leaves the clinic? So, more of the same false mercy, then. Allow the sin to be committed, since it's not 'merciful' to admonish the sinner any longer, and then be ready to 'accompany' this person to whatever outcome their conscience might dictate.

Sounds remarkably similar to the strategy for all of the 6th commandment challenges.

" this is a newspaper, in other words, with ecclesiastical approval" - more accurately, the approval of the PP who allows it to be sold there.

My nearest Catholic church sells neither the Times nor the Herald, limiting itself to the Universe. I dump my spare copies of the Herald (and Mass of Ages) there when the place is actually open outside Mass to provide the faithful with decent reading matter.

It is painful and heart rending that mercy is preached without involving truth. But when Mercy is pitched against Truth, how is Christ acknowledged? It is unfortunate that this scandal is coming from the anointed. Yet, only the truth

It is painful and heart rending that mercy is preached without involving truth. But when Mercy is pitched against Truth, how is Christ acknowledged? It is unfortunate that this scandal is coming from the anointed. Yet, only the truth shall set us free! The saving truth is always merciful. The Catholic Church is a merciful mother that preaches the truth in love, not wanting anyone to perish but to come to knowledge of the truth. May it be our desire to be guided by the saving truth and may we always present it in love.

It's a pity there is no group to campaign for his removal from that scandalous newspaper, outside the office of said newspaper. He's getting away with his evil writings, due to his own complicit bishops (Leeds and Aberdeen)

Unfortunately, we, at Catholic Truth, are based in Scotland or we'd be there in a heartbeat but I would urge those of you within reasonable reach of the Catholic Times Fake News Factory, to get something organised - letters don't get published and the few that make it, are always published side by side with a rebuttal from Mgr Loftus. Very professional editor, NOT!